


Human Coloring Book

by distant_rose



Series: Little Pirates [6]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Adorable kids being adorable, Alternate Universe - Future, Captain Cobra - Freeform, Captain Swan Children, Daddy Killian fluff, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff, Future Fic, Heavily tattooed Killian, Killian is a complete pushover for his kids, Swan-Jones Family, Tattoos, ridiculous fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-28
Updated: 2017-05-28
Packaged: 2018-11-05 18:48:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11019399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/distant_rose/pseuds/distant_rose
Summary: Underneath the leather, Killian Jones is covered in various tattoos including a full sleeve outline on his injured arm. Emma thinks that he needs to get it finished. Killian decides to get it colored in a most unconventional way - by his kids.





	Human Coloring Book

**Author's Note:**

> This is a fic in which I combine my love for Dad!Killian with my love for tattooed Killian. I refuse to believe that man only has one tattoo on his person. He's probably not as tatted as I made him in this, but whatever. As always, I have to thank my good friend welpthisishappening for listening and giving me feedback on my work. She's the best. All mistakes are mine because I don't have a beta and I am trash. If you have any questions, concerns, comments or want to chat, I'm always available on tumblr at distant-rose.tumblr.com

Emma nearly gasped the first time she stripped him bare and saw what was underneath all the leather. Nothing had prepared her for the magnificent artwork that lay undiscovered, hidden under numerous layers of black clothing. Killian Jones was covered from head to toe in ink. She had always assumed that he had a few tattoos aside from the heart and dagger that bore another woman’s name, but what she discovered was an entirely different level.

There wasn’t much work on his torso, but there was a tiny, tiny black swan on the far end of his collarbone and it became Emma’s favorite thing to kiss. It was a tribute to her, something that he had gotten while Emma and Henry were in New York. He had taken his vow to remember her everyday seriously and had marred his skin with his promise.

A pair of coordinates with an old fashion looking sextant took up the majority of the space on his left ribcage. It was one of the older looking tattoos on his body, the ink starting to blur a bit with age. Emma knew the moment she saw it that it was another memorial wrought on skin. It was for Liam and Emma sometimes caught him tracing it with a pensive look on his face in the dark quiet moments of the night, particularly on the hard days where one of them almost didn’t make it home.

There was a line of Greek script on his hipbone that was just as old as the sextant and it was what should have cued her in to the fact her pirate had a talent for linguistics. Killian Jones was not the type to tattoo a phrase in a tongue he didn’t speak on his body. On one particular night while she was worrying the letters with her lips and teeth, she asked him what it meant and he choked out it meant ‘freedom.’ It had been his first tattoo; inked only a few days after the Jones brothers had escaped the bonds of servitude.

Less meaningful tattoos littered his body; a feather dancing across the bridge of his foot, a colorful sea monster curled around an ankle and a Jolly Roger flag waved proudly on the back of his left calf. His back is a macabre of skulls and dancing skeletons circling around a very detailed rendition of the Jolly Roger, which upon closer inspection seemed to act as a mask for the uncountable number of scars that littered his back. Unknown constellations that Emma had never seen were sprinkled across backs of his shoulders, accompanied by a familiar golden compass that took up the majority of his right shoulder blade. A part of Emma was smug with the idea he had gotten two tattoos to remember her by instead of just one.

Killian had a lot of tattoos and Emma enjoyed exploring them all, but none quite caught her fascination like the full outlined but uncolored sleeve that took up the entirety of his blunted arm. Even ten years into their relationship, Emma always compelled to trace the lines of it. It was an impressively busy piece of work with ocean waves, sea dragons, sharks, mermaids, ships and anchors curled around his bicep and forearm. It was so intricately detailed, but it always felt unfinished to Emma because of the lack of color.

“Are you ever going to get this colored?” She asked him one night as she snuggled against his chest, tracing over a particular winking mermaid located just above the inside of his elbow.

Killian, who had been half asleep, made a humming noise that Emma felt as it rose from his chest more than she actually heard. 

“What’s that, love?” he murmured, cracking an eye open.

“The sleeve,” Emma clarified, pressing down her finger on the mermaid in emphasis. “Are you ever going to get this sleeve colored?”

Killian was silent for a moment and Emma watched his face as he mulled over her question, the wrinkles in his forehead creasing as he thought on it.

“Someday maybe,” he replied with a little shrug of his shoulders, careful not to dislodge her. “Why? You think it needs color?”

Emma placed a kiss on the tiny black swan before answering, nosing a bit at the prominent ridge of his collarbone and pressing a smile against his skin. Sometimes she found it ridiculous how much she loved this man, unfinished tattoos and all. She knew if she said yes, he would without a doubt try to get it done the next day to please her.

“Kinda. I mean you have so many colorful pieces and in comparison, this just feels like an outline. I mean, it’s your body, Killian, and I would never tell you what to do with it and if you want to keep it as is, I wouldn’t blame you. As beautiful as it would be I cannot imagine the number of hours and money it would take to have it done,” she said thoughtfully, glancing back at the sleeve.

Killian brought the arm in question up for them both to further inspect it and Emma couldn’t help but run her fingers across the ink, following the lapping waves and pausing at the curve of one anchor.

“A lot of work,” Killian agreed, watching her fingers. “It would be a lot of blues…some greens…browns for the ships…maybe some whites and grays…Some yellow for the mermaid’s hair.”

“I think she should have red hair,” Emma commented with a small hum. “Red would stand out better than yellow with all the blues and greens…”

“But I like blonde hair so much better,” he remarked with an amused chuckle. Emma snorted as she felt his fingers tangle in her hair, tugging playfully on the strands.

“Flatterer,” she murmured and she pulled back to place a quick kiss on the corner of his mouth.

“Just the truth, Swan,” he responded, gently pulling on her hair in order to tilt her head up for another kiss. This one far more heated than the one prior. She let out a soft sigh and hand abandoning its place on his arm to card into his thick dark hair. There were no more talks of tattoos for the rest of the night.

* * *

 

A few weeks later, Emma arrived home from the store with bags full of ice, freeze pops, ice cream and all the frozen goods she could find. It felt like the hottest summer to hit Maine and, of course, their air conditioning unit was busted. Emma truly loved their old home mainly because it was spacious enough for all of them to live comfortably and they got an excellent view of the ocean, but sometimes she wished that they had chosen a newer, more recently built house with actual central air. Emma felt disgusting, sweat clinging to her like second skin and she wondered if it was inappropriate to walk around in just her bra and a pair of shorts in this oppressive July heat. It wasn’t like they revealed more than a bath suit did…right?

She opened their front door, prepared to deal with overheated children as well as her dramatic and dehydrated husband, but none of her expectations are met when she walked through the door. Instead of moaning about the heat or cheers for popsicles, there was a lot of childish giggling. Curious to see what was so amusing, Emma placed her bags carefully down by the door and looked into the living room.

Her husband was sprawled out on the hardwood, dressed in nothing but a pair of black athletic shorts. Even his blunted arm was naked, no hook, no prosthetic or even his brace could be found; shocking Emma because she knew how self-conscious he was about it, very rarely was that arm bare outside the two of them. All four of her children were perched over him, all in various states of undress. Henry and Harrison were both shirtless and wearing only their swimming trucks. Wes was a little more dressed than his older brothers, wearing a black tank up and blue basketball shorts. Beth, who had laid herself across Killian’s chest, was in a green tank top and butterfly printed underwear. All four of them had markers in their hands and were drawing on her husband like he was a human coloring book.

“Hello Swan,” Killian greeted, tilting his head towards her. He looked as sweaty as she felt, his hair matted and sticking to his forehead. However, he didn’t look uncomfortable. If anything, Killian looked amused.

“What’s going on here?” Emma asked, tilting her head to study the scene in front of her.

“Well, Swan, I’m finally getting that sleeve colored by the most delightful team of artists I know.” Killian responded with a grin before turning to their daughter and asking, “is it alright if I pause this production to show Mommy your work?”

“You may,” Beth replied seriously, hopping off her father’s chest and turning to her brothers like some sort of project foreman, commanded: “Take a break boys!”

“But I’m almost done with the anchor!” Harrison protested with a frown.

“You’re taking far too long with it,” Wes replied bluntly with a roll of his eyes.

“That’s because I care about coloring in between the lines,” Harrison replied defensively, gesturing to the ship that Wes apparently had been coloring in with a thick brown marker. “I mean, look at that! You’re getting the brown all over the place! It looks sloppy!”

“Leave him alone, he’s just trying his best,” Henry said gently, placing a placating hand on Harrison’s shoulder and glancing back up at Emma. “Did you get the popsicles?”

Emma leaned back to pick up the bag she had dropped next to the door and gave it unnecessarily exaggerated shake as if to prove that the popsicles were indeed inside it. All four of her children’s eyes zeroed in on the grocery bag, licking their lips before they hopped off Killian in order to receive their frozen treats. Harrison, almost uncharacteristically rude, snatched the bag from her hands and immediately riffled through the contents. He pulled at the popsicle box with savage vigor, nearly ripping it in half.

“Careful there, bud,” Emma admonished him softly.

Harrison looked almost embarrassed as he pulled out a lime popsicle before handing it off to Wes. Wes, who was almost as picky as Harrison when it came to food, frowned as he searched through the box for a flavor he would like.

“There aren’t any blue raspberry ones in here, are there?” Wes asked Emma with a huff.

“Beggars cannot be choosers, Kid. Just be glad I bought you anything,” Emma replied, jumping slightly as Killian came up from behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. Normally she would lean back in his embrace, but it was far too disgustingly humid for such body contact.

“It’s way too hot for any touching to be happening right now,” Emma groaned, swatting at his arms.

“Sorry, love,” Killian chuckled, placing a quick kiss of apology on the base of her neck before he moved away. Emma shivered. Damn him for being able to make her still squirm after ten years and three kids together. They should be over those shenanigans by now.

Killian moved to join the kids in getting a popsicle, but Emma grabbed his arm, bringing it up in order to examine the coloring job that her kids had started. It wasn’t even close to being finished as there were numerous patches of untouched skin, but the splashes of bright color were definitely striking in comparison to the normal outline. Killian stiffened and gave her a surprised look for a moment, not expecting her to touch him after just complaining about the heat.

“You gave them a break to show me this, remember?” Emma replied with a small smile, giving his arm a gentle squeeze.

Killian chuckled softly in response, relaxing under her grip as Emma looked over all of the marker work. It was clear that some of her kids were better at coloring in between the lines than others and some were a bit more...creative with their color schemes. Whichever child who had started coloring around Killian’s wrist had decided that red was a good color for ocean water and that the neighboring anchor should be purple. The coloring job by his shoulder was the neatest; water an even blue without any spots and the sea dragon’s scales a mixture of green and yellow, no color bleeding over the black lines. Emma was willing to bet three popsicles that Henry was responsible for the shoulder work. The mermaid that had been the subject of discussion the few weeks prior was untouched.

“They better give her red hair…” Emma said, giving the tattoo an affectionate swipe with the pad of her thumb.

“Absolutely not,” Killian said with a shake of his head before turning to their children. “Twenty dollars and ice cream at Granny’s to anyone who gives my lovely mermaid blonde hair, lads and lass!”

“That’s cheating!” Emma exclaimed with a disbelieving laugh.

“All is fair in love and war, Swan,” he grinned, giving her a quick kiss that felt all too brief.

If that was how he wanted to play, Emma was game. She wasn’t afraid to play a little dirty herself. Emma gave her husband a tiny smirk before turning to her daughter and pulling out the big guns.

“Hey Beth, wouldn’t it be cool if the mermaid was Auntie Ariel?” she asked and internally cheered when her daughter’s eyes lit up. “We can draw her a nice purple shell bra too so she isn’t so naked and embarrassed on Daddy’s arm.”

Killian’s ears burned bright red as if he just realized that the mermaid on his arm was topless and that he had impressionable children drawing on his arm while it was in plain sight. Emma silently snickered as he raised his hand up to scratch the back of his neck uncomfortably.

“Who is the cheater now, Swan?” he asked with a shake of his head.

“All is fair in love and war, Hook,” Emma repeated his words back to him.

Killian let out a bark of laughter at her response and if Emma didn’t know better, she would have said that her husband looked proud of her for serving it back to him. He shook his head and grabbed one of the popsicles, tearing the packing up and giving it a long lick while locking eyes with her. She gave him a whack on the shoulder.

“Don’t be obscene,” she harshly whispered at him.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, love,” he replied, giving her a wink. “I think your mind is in an awfully naughty place.”

“You’re both disgusting,” Henry remarked, looking entirely unimpressed with them. “There are children present.”

“Children who want to finish Dad’s arm,” Harrison said, impatiently crossing his arms in front of his chest. It was hard to believe he was eight years old sometimes. Where had the time gone?

“Finish up that popsicle, Dad, so your artists don’t get cranky with you,” Emma laughed softly, ruffling Beth’s hair as she looked excitedly at Killian’s arm.

Killian polished off his treat, picking up all the wooden sticks and wrappers that had been accumulating around them and walking off towards the kitchen to toss them into the trash. When he returned, he picked up the stray markers on the floor and laid them on the coffee table. He then sat down in the armchair, holding out his arm in preparation of the colored marker assault that was about to happen.

While Henry casually approached his stepfather, the three little ones were a whirlwind of sugar and excitement. Harrison picked up a blue marker while Wes took the green and Beth eagerly chose pink. Harrison and Wes’s eyes bulged comically as they took in their sister’s color choice.

“What are you doing with the pink, Beth?” Harrison asked hesitantly.

“Coloring the shark,” Beth responded as if it was obvious.

Killian and Henry shared an amused look at Beth’s response, not even batting an eye at her explanation. Neither of them seemed bothered by her answer. Henry merely took a handful of markers and started coloring along Killian’s shoulder, confirming Emma’s suspicions that he was responsible for the neater patch of coloring.

“Why are you coloring the shark pink? Sharks aren’t pink! They’re grey, stupid!” Wes responded with an unimpressed look.

“Hey!” Killian and Emma shouted at the same time, glaring at their youngest son. Wes’s cheeks flushed at the light scolding, but he made no attempt to take back his words. However, Beth wasn’t waiting for an apology.

“Boy sharks are grey, this is a girl shark!” Beth exclaimed with a roll of her eyes. “And girls wear pink stuff. Grandma Snow said so! She said it was a rule.”

Emma snorted. Her mother so would tell her daughter that. Beth had been so resistant to most things that were traditionally “girly.” She didn’t like dresses. She didn’t like dolls. She certainly wasn’t fan of anything glittery. Her mother must have pulled everything out of her arsenal to make Beth even somewhat receptive to the color pink. She would probably even jump for joy that Beth would even think of using pink to color a “girl shark.”

“Okay,” Wes said, not even refuting the concept that girl sharks could be pink. “But Dad is a boy so he can’t have a girl shark on his arm. That’s just wrong.”

“He already does! He has a mermaid and she’s pretty! If Dad can have a mermaid, then he can definitely have a girl shark!” Beth replied with an impatient huff. Emma could already see the startings of another episode of Hurricane Elizabeth.

“Lads, I’m manly enough that I can handle a lovely pink shark lass on my arm. Just let her draw,” Killian responded with a casual wave of his hand. Emma caught what he wasn’t saying. It was magic marker and would wash off so it didn’t matter anyway.

Harrison and Wes looked like they wanted to grumble a bit more, but didn’t say anything more. Beth happily approached her father and enthusiastically began coloring in the toothy great white with her pink marker. However halfway through her task, Beth let out a surprised gasp and looked at Henry like he had mortally wounded her.

“What’s wrong, love?” Killian asked with a concerned frown.

“You colored the mermaid’s hair yellow!” Beth accused Henry as tears dangerously started to well in her eyes. “I wanted to make the mermaid Auntie Ariel!”

Emma stepped closer to inspect Killian’s arm and sure enough, the mermaid’s hair was neatly colored in with a sunshine yellow. She cut her eyes towards her firstborn son and fixed him with a pointed look, quietly waiting for an explanation for this sudden and unexpected betrayal. At least he had the decency to look sheepish.

“What!” He exclaimed. “Look, its Hook’s body and he wanted her to be a blonde and twenty bucks is like an eighteen pack of Heineken right there.”

“I always knew there was an excellent pirate in you, Henry!” Killian crowed, absolutely delighted with his explanation.

Without even looking at each other, Emma’s husband and her eldest son somehow managed to hit each other with a pretty epic high five that she was mildly impressed with. Beth, on the other hand, was not at all impressed with Killian and Henry, and she continued to look at Henry with a somewhat miserable expression that Emma hoped made both of them feel guilty.

“I wanted to make her Auntie Ariel, Henry,” Beth whimpered.

“Hey, hey, hey.” Henry capped his marker and smoothed his hand through Beth’s hair in hopes of calming her down. “I know you wanted to make her look like Auntie Ariel, but would it make you happy if I let you give her a shell bra and gave you my ice cream at Granny’s?”

“Only if I get a piggy back ride to Granny’s too,” Beth replied, pout slowly but surely disappearing.

“Done,” Henry said with a small laugh and Beth hugged him, forgetting to cap her own marker and slashing Henry across the back with pink ink. Wes and Harrison made a pointed effort to finish up Killian’s arm and ignore the scene going on next to them, but Emma caught Wes rolling his eyes and mouthing ‘faker’ under his breath.

“Little pirates,” Emma heard Killian muttered affectionately as he regarded his stepson and only daughter.

In the end, they all got dressed (Emma opted for a red and white striped cotton summer dress instead of her controversial choice of bra and shorts she had considered previously) and got ice cream at Granny’s. Henry kept his promise and gave Beth a piggy back ride the entire way and Wes, in a fit of jealously, demanded a piggy back ride from Killian. Harrison, thankfully for everyone’s shoulders because he was now far too big to be carried, did not request to be held in any fashion, but grabbed Emma’s hand and swung their arms merrily between them. While they were eating, Granny made a small remark while gesturing to Killian's now fully colored arm, which he had decided to show off to the public by making the rare decision to wear a dark t-shirt.

“That’s a lot of color there, Captain,” she said with a raise of her eyebrows.

“Thanks,” he replied, not caring whether she meant it as a compliment or not. “I had four really good artists work on it.”


End file.
